Rhinos 101
By Annie Sears As the title would suggest, Eugène Ionesco’s Rhinoceros —playing through June 23 at The Geary—features some lumbering pachyderms. The play isn’t really about rhinos, but they’re a constant onstage presence. Characters are always talking about rhinos, gawking at rhinos, or in some cases, transforming into rhinos. Our marketing department visited the San Francisco Zoo & Gardens to learn some fast facts about these mysterious creatures. 1. A group of rhinos is called a crash . Does that make the Rhinoceros cast a crash? A crashing cast? A casting crash? 2. Their horns are made of keratin —the same protein that makes up human fingernails! Boone, the black rhinoceros at the San Francisco Zoo, shows off his two horns. Photo by Elspeth Sweatman. 3. Some rhinos have one horn. Others have two . Gene and Berenger have a disagreement about this in Rhinoceros , so let’s break it down: There are five different species of rhinos. Two of those species, the black rhino...